2 Scams To Avoid When Buying Your Home

2 Scams To Avoid When Buying Your Home

A new family moved in next to us,
and my wife and I stopped by to welcome them. They asked us when trash pickup
is (Tuesday), if the city will fix the broken streetlight next to their driveway
(yes), and if the guy who “walks” an imaginary dog through the neighborhood is
dangerous (no).
Then they asked a really strange
question: They wanted to know how much we paid to file our homestead exemption.

A
scam that’s been around for years

They received a letter in the mail
containing lots of data about their property from a company offering to file
their homestead-exemption paperwork – for the low, low price of $35. Being
first-time homebuyers, they didn’t know that there is no fee for filing your
homestead exemption in Texas. You download the form from the state and file it with
your local appraisal district; it doesn’t cost anything.

But
wait … there are more

I’d heard about that
homestead-exemption scam; a client of ours received a similar letter when they bought their house. Lucky for them, we had explained how to file the
exemption. We also said to call if they received any other official-looking
letters asking for fees for anything related to the sale of our house. That
came in handy when they got an invoice a few days after closing from a
deed-retrieval service, charging them $87 for a copy of their deed. We told them to
throw away the so-called invoice – they would be getting a copy from the title
company.
As far as real estate scams go,
these may be small potatoes, but when you’re buying a house, every dollar
helps.